JUNE THIRTEENTH,
TWO THOUSAND AND SIX.
"I'm off to Saltburn again - I'll let you know if I'm saying the night or not." Lyssa deadpanned to her mother who was preoccupied reading a VOGUE magazine issue at the kitchen island.
"Lovely." Her mother had replied shortly, bitterly. Laced with unneeded hostility and sarcasm - something they definitely had enough of in their sophisticated relationship.
Lyssa was a handful of steps away from their front door, stopping in doing so to to administer her estranged mother a dosage of her noxious words - her only defence mechanism, the only way Lyssa knew how to push her mother's buttons.
To make her mother feel something towards her. To yank at her mother's patience, her vain front.
To capture her attention.
"You never know, maybe I'll go and pay Esther a visit." She hummed, "Go drown myself in the lake - put us out of our misery."
The sudden slam of the front door closing had been the mediator that prevented another hellish bickering dispute between Lyssa and the woman who was meant to treat her with tenderness, but whom had only treated her with callousness.
Lyssa may as well just have the same sparse quantity of respect and deprivation of decorum from her mother as a smear of dog shit would have on the underside of her Louboutins.
┉ˏ͛ ༝̩̩̥͙ ⑅͚˚ ҉ ⑅͚˚ ͛༝̩̩̥͙ ˎ┉
"Lyss, my lover!"
Farleigh had greeted her accordingly with outstretched arms, ushering her inside the foyer of Saltburn for the second time in less than a week.
"Farleigh, baby." Lyssa sighed, relieved that she was now surrounded by liveliness, people on her wavelength - people that weren't her mother.
"You look knackered," He pointed out, gently pressing his thumbs underneath her eyes, in an attempt to conceal her developing eye bags.
"You just need a mimosa and a couple of hours in the sunlight - a tan will do you good."
Lyssa hummed agreeably, a mimosa would be her ultimate nirvana at this moment.
"Look what the cat has dragged in..."
Venetia whistled, peering over her sun bed behind her to where Lyssa and Farleigh emerged through the french doors - her sunglasses perched on the lower bridge of her nose.
"Do can it, Venetia."
Felix flatly demolished his sisters' arising efforts to belittle his old friend, finding this petty side of her thoroughly uncharitable and unlikable.
Felix, who had been sat restful upon the freshly-mown turf three feet away from the lip of the lake heaved himself up to a standing position -
advancing to an unhurried walk as he approached her.
"Lyss, darling - welcome back." He enchanted her into a benign embrace, which felt as though Lyssa was being engulfed by a furnace - but in a pleasant way.
His skin, she'd noticed, had bronzed into a deeper shade of tawny than when she had seen him a couple of days ago.
His hair remained unkempt as he had grown it out longer since last year - particular strands long enough to fall in-front of his face at brow-level - where his eyebrow piercing caught the rays of the sun, the silver jewellery glistening.
Shirtless, as he was fifty percent of the time, his fresh tan further defining the ripples of muscle upon his biceps and abdomen, that flexed as he moved.
We wore navy Ralph Lauren drawstring swim shorts, that rested below his transversus abdomis, better known as 'v-line' or 'sex lines".
Lyssa had observed the stack of layered woven bracelets that had accumulated upon his wrist, and how they suited his colourful personality.
However she'd never seen them before until now, so she couldn't help herself but wonder how, who, or why he was wearing them.
It was only until she saw an inky illustration appear from underneath them as he raised his arm to run his hand through his hair; she realised that the bracelets was a rather sloppy attempt at covering up a permanent tattoo - much to Elspeth's horror if she found out.
He'd evidently been lounging in the sun for a lengthly amount of time, as his skin was scorching to the touch - Lyssa concluded it was a miracle that he hadn't burned.
But, being scorched by the actual sun wasn't what Felix Catton was to be concerned about.
For the real endangerment - the soaring form that was capable of the most harm towards himself, the real burn.
One that wouldn't just be perceptible on his skin,
but against his heart, too.
The reticent, amusingly-impertinent girl that was situated in his arms - not for the first time, either.
His distinct cologne had marinated into his skin, to the point where it was still distinguishable, but the scent had been tainted by aroma of the lush summer breeze that filtered through the gardened wildflowers, and freshly-cut grass.
"You're boiling," Lyssa pulled herself out of his grasp, a mildly concerned look appearing on her features, "Please tell me you've put sun cream on, Felix."
Chuckling lightly, finding himself entertained and partly flattered by the Sol girl's concern regarding his health, he shook his head.
"Sun cream is for pussies, Lyss." He joked, using his pointer finger to jab playfully into her side, making her flinch away, "I can handle a bit of sun, but I appreciate the concern."
Lyssa grinned at his antics, walking away from him to find an adequate patch of grass to settle down upon.
"Burn, baby, burn!" Lyssa shouted over her shoulder at the Catton boy, who used her blindsided ness of having her back turned away from him as an opportunity to ensue chaos between them.
He charged at her unsuspectingly, hands reached for her thighs as he tackled her over his shoulder and restrained her body there - parading around with her as if he were proudly exhibiting a wrestling belt.
Her body, now helplessly folded over the six foot five stud that was Felix Catton like a lawn chair, writhed frantically as an attempt of freeing herself.
To no avail, for she'd realised quickly that Felix had used his hand that was supporting her atop his shoulder to clamp down on the backs of her thighs, making it impossible for her to move any further.
"You twat, let me down!" She clawed at his back like a feral caged animal, yet it earned no reaction.
"Keep shredding my back up, Sol." Felix urged cockily as he spun her around, "I'm plenty used to it."
"Felix - what the fuck?," Farleigh and Venetia shared a look of revolt, wishing they could've reversed time to five seconds ago where they hadn't had to visualise his provocative, suggestive comment against their will.
"You repulse me!," Lyssa shouted as she continued to struggle stubbornly, "I'm going to fucking castrate you!"
Her threats only proved humorous to the boy, who couldn't help himself but laugh at her attempts to challenge him while she was dangerously high and creased over his shoulders.
She had a major attitude to her for someone who equated to feel so light weighing upon him, Felix briefly wondered where all this hatred and sullenness was stored.
"Mm, keep talking dirty to me, Lyss. I love it."
Once Felix had decided he'd tormented her enough, he steadily returned her to the ground, unfolding his arm from her thighs.
"Felix Catton, you're making me wish I'd never met you. Again."
Lyssa sighed sarcastically, trying to tame her violently windswept hair, "I'll get you back, just you wait."
Lyssa hadn't been sure of what she meant by that, not bothering to question her speech.
Instead, she decided to change into her bikini, as she felt her skin beginning to boil underneath the material of her crewneck, and it suddenly felt as though she were wearing a sauna.
Shimmying the crewneck off of her body, the material peeling away from her skin as if the heat had melded it there, revealing her silver bikini.
Felix, who'd now found himself comfortable back on the same region of grass near the lake, gazed intently at the girl.
It was expected from him especially, - to feast his eyes upon her features, as if his eyes had been starved from the female physique, which it definitely had not.
However, Lyssa tended to have this effect on him, she always had - since they'd met. The crueler she was with her words, the more distance that had grown between them, the more Felix found herself wanting her more and more to himself.
A fish hooked onto a fishing line, he was. Yet, Lyssa hadn't had to do anything to draw him in - for her closed off front that she'd walled around herself had proved bait for the Saltburn Heir to magnetise towards.
Felix was determined for her to shed her defensive layers that she'd cemented around herself like a headstrong onion, just how she was shedding off her clothes in-front of him.
Not that he wasn't pleased with watching her do this, for he definitely was.
Pleased enough to the point where he had to look away.
He reluctantly turned his body and his gaze away from her - forcing himself to try and think about something else - his body stiffening at the realisation of what had ensued beneath his shorts.
"Fuck," He whispered, resting his forehead on his arm that was resting over his knees as he sat conflicted upon the shadowed area of grass, cooling off.
He decided to invest in a cigarette to divert his thoughts, wedging it between his lips and igniting it with his lighter - his hand cupping around it to avoid the breeze intercepting.
"You're going to pay, Catton." Lyssa called, before walking back inside the house with Farleigh to collect the mimosas.
"Don't move, we're getting the booze!" Farleigh instructed to both him and Venetia, who had floundered over to bathe on the lake dock, her head tilted over the edge.
Better be careful she blood doesn't rush too quick her head, hm?
"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." Felix wittily replied, shrugging.